


Wukong's Story

by OneMoreStory



Category: Xī yóu jì | Journey to the West - Wú Cheng'en
Genre: Gen, Jinhezai, Profanity, Translation, Violence, Wukong Zhuan, 今何在, 悟空传
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-05-18
Updated: 2016-05-22
Packaged: 2018-01-25 14:02:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 12,265
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1651229
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OneMoreStory/pseuds/OneMoreStory
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"I want the sky to never again cover my eyes; the earth, never again bury my heart. I want every living creature to know my will; I want all the gods to scatter like smoke." A translation of the highly acclaimed Chinese internet novel by Jinhezai based on Journey to the West. This is a story that contains love, philosophy, metaphors, ridicule of the ridiculous, Chinese sarcasm, fights for freedom, and above all a very cool Monkey King.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. One

**Author's Note:**

> Some names spelled according to Mandarin pronunciation instead of more typical English names:
> 
> Sun Wukong - By Chinese convention, Sun is the family name. The Monkey King.  
> Zhu Bajie - Pigsy.  
> Tang Sanzang - Tripitaka.  
> Guanyin - Goddess of Mercy.
> 
> Some glaring grammatical errors are deliberate to imitate the original author's style. The remainder are my own.

Foreword

I want the sky to never again cover my eyes; the earth, never again bury my heart. I want every living creature to know my will; I want all the gods to scatter like smoke.

* * *

One.

The four stopped before a forest. There was no more road ahead.

"Wukong, I'm hungry. Go get some food." Tang sat ostentatiously down on a rock, and said.

"I'm busy. Go get some yourself, you've got legs." Wukong said, leaning on his staff.

"Busy? What are you doing?"

"Don't you think the clouds at sunset are really beautiful?" Wukong said, eyes on the horizon, "I have to take a look at them every day, to be able to continue walking west."

"You can look at them as you are getting food, just don't walk into anything."

"When I'm watching the sunset, I don't do anything else!"

"Sun Wukong, you can't do this, you can't be mean to the bald guy. If he starves to death, we'd never get to the Western Paradise; if we never get to the Western Paradise, the curses we bear will never be lifted." said Zhu Bajie.

"Fuck off, pig-head, who asked you?"

"What'd you say? Who're you calling a pig?"

"Not a pig, a pig's head." Wukong snickered through his teeth.

"You wanna say that one more time?" Bajie charged with his rake lifted.

"Shut the fuck up, I'm sleeping! Get the fuck out of here, if you want to fight!" Friar Sand roared.

The three thugs glared.

"Fight all you like! The more of you die, the better!" Tang stood up, "You're all masters, I'll go get food for all of you, how about that? It'd be great if a passing demon could eat me up too, then you can all cry your hearts out."

"Go on, there's a lady demon waiting for you!" Wukong called.

"Hee hee hee." The three monsters snickered.

"Don't think I won't!" Tang turned to shake his fist at them, then patted down his robes, then straightened his robes, then began to walk towards the forest. On the first step, "skritch" - his robes had caught on something.

"Ha ha ha…" The three monsters were rolling on the ground, quite forgetting to fight.

***

This was a purple wood, and all around, strange plants grew in an ever-present, indigo mist. The deeper one walked, the wetter the ground and darker the canopy, until finally, the branches and leaves completely covered the sky, and Tang was completely lost.

"Wonderful! What lively, what unique living beings!" Tang said happily.

"Thank you!" said a voice.

Tang turned, and saw a tree; set into its purple trunk were two blinking eyes.

"Amazing, I see a demon! I love such supernatural beings, what a wonder life is! Let me feel you, spirit of the earth." Tang reached out, joyfully rubbing the trunk.

The trunk was covered with purple sap, and felt slippery-wet and silk-smooth.

The tree relaxed into the stroking, and allowed its thousands of draping branches to wave about in pleasure.

"Ah! No one has touched me for several tens of thousands of years! It used to be… perhaps a few thousand years ago, that a tribe of monkeys played on me, but since then they have disappeared. Back then, I did not yet have eyes, and only felt so many moving creatures all around me, talking, singing… I couldn't see, and couldn't move, but I was happy. Now, I have finally grown my eyes, but I'm not sure where they all are…"

"They're dead." said Tang.

"Dead? What is dead?"

"Death means you cannot see anything, cannot hear or feel or think anything, like the time before you were born."

"No! Don't want death. And don't want to be alone."

"You will live for a long time yet. You don't have hands, or legs - you'll grow those later."

"I spent a hundred thousand years growing eyes - I cannot bear such waiting anymore! I want to feel the others around me right now, feel you, the smell on your body intoxicates me!"

"It _has_ been a while since I last showered. By the way, if you don't have a mouth, how are you talking?"

"I use this." The tree waved a branch in front of Tang.

On it hung a human mouth.

"That's not yours."

"Correct. I found it. Three hundred years ago, a man was eaten here, and this was left behind. I used my sap to keep it fresh, then spent another dozen years to grow a branch and pick it up."

"That's not nice, you know, you have become opportunistic. If it's not yours, you should return it to where it's from."

"Don't you want to know why that man was eaten?"

"Because he met you?"

"Yes."

Suddenly, Tang realized his feet have been tangled by vines for some time.

Behind him came a snuffling noise, and hot air the smell of rotten flesh blasted at his neck, but he could not turn around.

"Leave his hands for me. I like those hands." said the tree.

"Taking other demons' leftovers; If I were you I'd hang myself for shame." said Tang.

"If I had a neck, I'd consider it."

A pair of claws rested on Tang's shoulders.

The tree said: "Wait, I want to say one last thing to him. He is the first to talk to me after I got this mouth. I'm very curious what the psychology is like for a person about to be eaten."

"Don't you prattle on at me!" said Tang, "the earlier I die, the earlier I reincarnate! I'm not scared! …do you really want to hear my last words?"

The tree nodded it's branches.

"Alright." Tang took a deep breath: "HEEEEEEEEEAAAAAALLLLPPP!"

***

"The master's calling for help again." said the pig.

"Ignore him, he's always like that. Tireless." Wukong has finished looking at the sunset, and was now gnawing on a bone.

Bajie stared at him. "What are you eating?"

"Pork."

"All right, you little-" The pig leaped at the monkey.

"Yeah." Friar Sand turned over in his sleep. "Chop… Chop him up…" And fell back into a deep slumber.

***

"You have called seventeen times. I only permitted one sentence." The tree stared at Tang. "Why are you leaking water?"

"Grandpa Tree, I'm really scared. I'm still young, I'm barely twenty years old."

"You have your limbs and your senses at only twenty. I've lived hundreds of thousands of years and only have a pair of eyes. How is that fair?"

"To become human you must reincarnate several hundred times, so altogether I haven't waited for much less time than you. Please let me live a few years longer."

"If I release you, you will leave me, and I will be left alone. No."

"I won't leave, I swear by my eldest disciple Sun Wukong that I'll stay until your death. And can whatever's behind me stop licking me? I'm rather dirty, you know."

"Sun Wukong? I've heard of that name somewhere… Oh forget it, you said you have disciples?"

"Yes. My second disciple Zhu Bajie is very fat."

"Then keep shouting."

***

"The master has called for the one hundred and thirty-forth time. You still won't go and shut him up?"

"Call me uncle first."

"Never! Hey! Take your foot off my back and fight me like a man!"

"No, huh? Then you bring this on yourself…"

Bang, bang, crash. #%!!&@.

***

"Ahem.. Um, can I get a drink of water before I get back to yelling?"

"They're not coming. Maybe they've run away."

"Wait, I think hear a sound like a pig getting slaughtered." The creature behind Tang said.

"Oh yeah, that'll be them." said Tang.

"I don't care, I'll eat you first, then go look for them."

"No no no, don't do that, why don't we sit down and talk about philosophy - how about I give you a riddle? What is a lotus before it's a lotus?"

"Ahh!" Both the tree and the creature gave a sudden scream, and disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"Huh?" said Tang, "What happened to you? Sorry if my riddle was a little too hard."

"A lotus before it's a lotus is still a lotus." A girl's voice said.

Tang turned around, and saw a girl smirking at him, with long flowing hair and shimmering clothes woven from the finest silver grass.

"You're really pretty, lady!" said Tang.

"It appears you are a lustful monk."

"Oh, no! Only, a monk must not lie."

"If you weren't bald, girls would like you."

"I've always thought it makes me look rather dashing."

"Such a slippery tongue; how will you ever learn the true way?"

"The way I learn is different from everyone else's; they study the Smaller Scriptures, I study the Bigger Scriptures; they learn of emptiness, I learn of fulfillment."

"Bigger Scriptures? Ha, never heard of them."

"Because I haven't made them up yet."

"I've only heard of a Gold Cicero who doubted the Smaller Scriptures, and wanted to comprehend everything all by himself. He ended up going astray, and re-entered the mortal world."

"That's dumb of him."

The girl was suddenly angry. "What right do you have to talk about him like that?! He has enough wisdom in his little finger to reveal the very heaven's secrets; you are only a common mortal who begs demons for your life!"

"Because I want to live, and I cannot bury the desire in my heart; in the same manner, I delight in your beauty - how then can I say that all is empty?"

"You are a simple mortal; you cannot see that the perceptions of all things are but illusions."

"Even the bitches of swine have beauty and ugliness, there is no need to feel ashamed of yourself."

"You have already broken the Ban of Hostility! Incessant talk of nonsense; unclean heart and mind - how can you possibly be a monk?"

"Heaven's mercy, it's not my fault I was born in a temple."

"You are not worthy of discussing Buddhism. When I heard your riddle, I thought you had some understanding, and so came to your aid - now I see that I have saved an ignorant fool. Leave my sight!"

"Ha, that was not well said, lady; 'life and death are the will of heaven' - if I were a wise monk of deep understanding, the Buddha would naturally protect me - how would ever I require your fussing?"

"Infuriating, bald -"

The girl suddenly turned about and the pretty face was immediately twisted and frightening: "If you are such an unimportant mortal, then I should devour you!"

Tang sighed. "Why is it that demons always have so much to say before they eat me?"

In the blink of an eye, a figure streaked through the air.

It was, of course, Sun Wukong.

The moment the girl's wrist was caught, she felt a suffocating force flooding her body; it was an unassailable will power, paralyzing her every muscle. With a soft sigh, she gave up the fight, and fell to the ground.

Wukong studied the girl-demon. "Well, egg-head, you attract female demons like dung attracts flies; using you as bait seems to be working marvellously well - I'll have collected enough merit points very soon… Why is it that the demons that fall for you become uglier by the day?"

"Amita - good heavens - bha! You think even this beautiful lady is ugly?" said Tang.

"Beau- Beauti- Look at her, she's nearing my level… Does that turn you on or something?"

"Ah, though appearances be ever-shifting, the heart remains a clear mirror. How can your monkey's eyes distinguish beauty from ugliness?"

"Pfft. Just because I have cataracts and moderate astigmatism, in addition to teary eyes in strong wind and direct sunlight - only because I'd been underground for too long! - How dare you mock me for my handicap? Make me angry and my staff will pay retribution to your behind. Now, let me finish off your little lady first."

Wukong lifted his Gold-tipped Staff.

The girl stirred, and opened her eyes to Wukong raising his staff.

"Sun Wukong… You are Sun Wukong!"

She suddenly clutched his legs to her chest. "Is it you? Is it really you? I'm not dreaming?"

She lifted the ugly face to fix it with deep emotion on Wukong, tears actually spilling from her eyes.

Sun Wukong felt his whole body shudder, like all his organs had jerked, and thought, what magic was this, that prevented him from using even an ounce of his strength?

The girl was still talking: "You've come; it's too wonderful - is it another dream? But I am satisfied. I've stayed here for so many years, hoping one day you would appear before me - you are free - are you finally free? I knew this day would come, no-one can imprison you, never… I'm so happy… so happy…"

She had become inarticulate with sobs.

Wukong coalesced his power, and gave a shout. The girl flew through the air, and rammed into a tree, cracking a trunk large enough for two men to wrap their arms around clean into two.

"Ha, you incorrigible demon, do you think this is any use on me? Crying? Crying won't do a thing for you, I kill people as soon as I look at them."

"You, you don't recognize me… True, now that I look like this, you cannot recognize me… but I was cursed by the Jade Emperor, and cannot change back… I am…"

The girl suddenly screamed, and blood poured from her mouth. She fell writhing to the ground.

Tang gave a sigh of pity: "Are you cursed as well to prevent you from saying who you are?"

The girl clawed at the earth, clearly in terrible pain.

"Don't believe her, egg-head, I've seen plenty of demons, they'll use any trick they can. Get out of the way and let me finish her." said Wukong.

"I'm not stopping you, go on... why aren't you finishing her?"

"You're not the boss of me, I don't kill when you order me to."

"Amitabha. A thousand difficulties forges an undying will." Tang straightened his shredded robes, and strolled towards the edge of the forest. "You two take your time, I'll not impose myself. I'll take a walk in this beautiful wood, and hope to meet a flower demon…"

He paused beside the remains of the trunk of the old tree, and gave a deep sigh: "Don't want to die, and don't want to be alone. Have you lived hundreds of thousands of years only for this day?"

Tang left. Wukong hopped on a tree branch, and swung around while the girl convulsed and moaned on the ground. After a long time, the girl slowly recovered.

Wukong: "It's not that I pity you, I just don't kill anyone who can't defend themselves. You're done now, right? Bring it on."

He was still swinging languidly on a thick vine, looking more like he was preparing for an afternoon nap than a battle.

The girl's face was very pale, but as she watched Wukong, a trace of laughter came to her mouth, still red with blood.

"You haven't changed. You used to be… just like this… Do you remember the time we first met? You were lying on a tree branch then too, on the branch of a Heavenly peach tree…"

"The hell, I've met an insane demon. Lady, I've never seen you before, nor have I ever seen any Heavenly peach trees. Why don't you make a random move, so I can kill you with one counter move instead of wasting time?"

"You still can't remember who I am? Have… have you forgotten everything?"

"Old lady, stop going on about your life story, you've got the wrong person. I was only released from the Five Dungeons Mountain five years ago, and all I want to do is to kill a few extra demons so the guys in heaven can clear my old charges - maybe even give me a job as a minor earth spirit or something… When have I ever met you?"

"What are you talking about? Five Dungeons? Shouldn't it be the Five Elements Mountain? As for your charges… You know what crimes you've committed, do you really expect Heaven to forget it all just for killing a few demons?

"What are _you_ talking about? I was a monkey-demon from Fruit-blossom Mountain, punished in the Five Dungeons for being disrespectful to the Jade Emperor. Now the Emperor himself has pardoned me, on the condition that I perform those three tasks… I remember the past perfectly clearly - where do you come into it? Why the hell am I even talking to you about this?"

The girl's expression was full of shock and suspicion.

"How could.. Unless.. They want you to do three tasks? What three tasks?"

"You're just endless, aren't you? Well, I guess you can die with your curiosity satisfied. The first task is to get the egg-head to the Western Paradise. The second is to kill the four Demon Kings…"

"The Four Kings!?"

"Yeah, you know, the Great Sage in Level with Heaven, Demon Bull King of Western Heniu; the Great Sage Clouding Heaven, Demon Hawk King of Northern Julu; and another one of those sages, Overlooking Heaven, the Macaque King of Southern Jiabu, and also, the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, Monkey King of Eastern Shen -

"Ha! The - the Monkey King?"

" - Yeah, you know him? - The third task they said they'll tell me after I've done the first two. Why are you crying again?"

The girl had lowered her head, murmuring: "Yes, he has forgotten everything, forgotten you…" Her tears fell into the earth beneath her.

Wukong leaped from the tree with a sigh. "You look so miserable, it would probably be a good thing for me to finish you. In your next life, try to be a wild flower or something growing on a cliff, and sway around in the wind a bit - wouldn't that be better than a demon that lived too long to keep its memories straight?"

The girl lifted her face through the pain: "I do not remember wrongly. I will remember everything, remember it forever… I could never have guessed that after five hundred years of waiting for you, I would die by your hand. We never did escape the center of his palm."

Wukong lifted his staff…

"Before I die, I want to ask you one thing." said the one beneath the staff.

"Is it true that, after you forget everything, there will be no more pain?"

"……”

Wukong held the staff in the air.

"Argh!" He swung his staff to the side, clearing all the trees in a fan-shaped space of over ten yards in diameter.

"A demon with dementia, no point in killing…" He muttered, walking away without a single look back.

Not seeing the girl as she stretched her hand towards him, too weak to shout, her eyes full of sadness.

As he walked, he thought he heard the sound of ocean waves. But he was in a forest, surrounded by trees.

"Five hundred years ago," he thought, "where was I?"

At the thought, he had a sudden headache. He shook his head to clear it, and felt better.

"Weird. How come I suddenly don't feel like killing anymore?"


	2. Two

Two

Tang and the other two disciples were eating fruit in front of the campfire.

Sun Wukong walked slowly out of the woods.

Tang looked up.

"You're back? Take a seat."

Wukong said nothing. He sat down and stared into the fire.

"Eh, what's wrong with the monkey today?" said the pig, "He's looks like he's been knocked on the head. Haha, hahaha…."

He laughed until tears came from his eyes before he realized no one else was laughing.

"Not good." said Sand.

"What's not good?" asked Bajie.

"I don't know, but I feel nervous all of a sudden." said Sand.

"Fine, everything's fine. What will come, will come." Tang said, watching Wukong carefully, "Isn't that right, monkey?"

Wukong's face was hidden in the shadows.

"I didn't kill her." he said.

"I knew you couldn't bear to kill such a pretty girl." said Tang.

"Ah! Pretty women! No wonder the monkey stayed for so long! And you too, monk! What have you guys been d-"

Sand kicked Bajie.

"What are you kicking me for? You think they're acting weird? Well so what, what's that got to do with me? When have they ever acted not weird?" The pig yelled.

"She told me everything." said Sun Wukong.

"Oh?" said Tang.

"She told me who I am, and who all of us are."

"Oh?" said Tang.

"Oh?" said the Pig, "Did she tell you I'm not actually a pig ahahaha… hahaha…"

Sun Wukong leaped up; the pig was still rolling on the floor with laughter.

Wukong pointed at Tang with his staff: "Since I now know who you are, I am bound to kill you."

"Oh." said Tang, "Who am I? Can you tell me before you kill me?"

Wukong leaped, and his staff landed directly on Tang's head. Blood spurted, and Tang fell to the ground.

Wukong roared with laughter: "Sun Wukong, you've committed another crime against Heaven!"

He threw back his head and shouted at the sky: "I've killed him - so what? Come and get me!"

Suddenly, a bolt of lightning struck, accompanied by an enormous roll of thunder. The entire woods caught fire.

Wukong laughed carelessly. "Ha, missed me! Aim for this!" He pointed at his forehead. "Come on, come on! Are you scared? I DARE YOU!"

The dancing firelight twisted his face frightfully.

Low rumbles of thunder sounded, but no more lightning struck. The thunder was like the panting of an enormous beast in the face of an even greater opponent, fading away in its rumbles.

Wukong seemed to sense something, suddenly. He leaped, then disappeared into the sky.

Friar Sand looked at the sky, then looked at the ground. Tang's body laid on the ground, and had begun to burn. Bajie was still laughing.

"Hey. Stop laughing. Tang's dead."

"Dead is good, dead is good, let's divide up the luggage shall we, ahahaha… hahaha…."

The pig kept on laughing, tears streaming down his face.

***

The cause…

General Tian Peng had watched it all since the first day the moon rose into the sky.

He watched as she collected the countless dust particles of the world, and from them carefully select the silver ones; only one in five billion billion particles are of that colour. She patiently sorted through each one, and Tian Peng stood beside her and watched. She did not talk when she was working, in fear of her breath blowing away the dust, and so Tian Peng did not talk. When hurried travelers of the sky rushed by, Tian Peng would spread his great wings to protect her from the wind.

So she worked for eighty thousand years; so Tian Peng stood silently beside her for eighty thousand years, never saying a word, or even seeing her face, as she only ever faced the pile of dust she sorted. Yet Tian Peng was happy, for there was someone he could silently watch, someone who needed him, though only once every few thousand years. It was still better than living alone in the dark, in the Heavenly river - so much better.

And so, ten billion billion silver particles were selected. One day, she lifted her hand and ten billion billion particles all flew into the sky, and in the ancient darkness, there were suddenly clouds of glowing silver light.

"It's beautiful!" Tian Peng could not help but shout. She gently put a hand to Tian Peng's mouth.

"Shh. Don't scare them." she whispered, her eyes filled with love. Tian Peng was light-headed, though she directed her gaze not at him but at the silver fairies; he was dizzy with the thought that there could be such love in the world, such magical creations. To have such a thing to love, he thought, must be wonderful.

The second time she lifted her hand, the clouds of silver dust began to spin, surrounding where she and Tian Peng stood; they spun faster and faster, until they became an enormous silver ring. Tian Peng was almost fainting from this fantastic view; he stumbled and leaned against her slightly. She did not push him away, but held him, gently.

"Careful," she said, still quietly.

That single word was the most beautiful music Tian Peng had heard in eighty thousand years.

The third time she lifted her hand, the glowing ring began to spiral into the center, becoming billions of silver threads flowing towards the very middle of the ring, where a small silver core was becoming clearer and clearer.

"What is attracting them?" asked Tian Peng.

"Me." she said.

"…"

"Us." she smiled. Her finger lightly touched his face.

Tian Peng felt the silver river flow into his veins with that touch, and he could bear it no longer. He pulled her into his arms.

He kissed her, deeply, the kiss matured by eighty thousand years.

When it was over, she slipped out of his arms, looked across the sky and gasped.

"Oh, no!"

When she was kissed she had relaxed her power, and now, though the silver core has been created, several billion particles were still scattered around the heavenly river.

She covered her face and cried.

"I've worked on it for so long, and I still failed, in the end."

Tian Peng gently put his arm around her.

"Don't cry. There is no creation that is perfect in the world, but sometimes imperfection is more beautiful. Look."

She lifted her head, and saw that the Heavenly river now flowed with twinkling silver stars.

The Heavenly river used to be dark, but now you have turned it into silver, so let us then call it the "Milky Way", and this silver core, we can call it…"

"Use my name. We can call it - Moon."

"Moon… yes. So can we say, the lovers are bathed in the light of the moon?"

"…"

Bathed in the moonlight, the lovers stood, arms tight around each other.

"Zhu Bajie! You're drooling; can you suck it up a bit? It's nearly at my feet." the White Dragon said.

"Damn you, horse, you woke me up."

"Are your eyes drooling too or are you actually capable of crying?"

"What are talking about? Me, crying? Pfft. The egg-head is dead, off to the West all by himself, and I don't have to deal with it all any more - I couldn't be more happy. I was dreaming about my pretty wife at Gao village."

"You keep saying you have a wife there, but I've never even heard of the village. Besides, who would fall for a pig, unless… is she also a…"

"Shut up! You can call me a pig, but don't you say a word against her!"

"You actually are a pig though."

"I can dream can't I?"

A shadow fell on them.

Zhu Bajie looked up.

"Hey, monkey, what are you doing back here? Aren't you on the run? Pug-face Sand is already off to report you, hahaha…"

Sun Wukong continued to glare at him coldly.

"Where's the Master?"

"You want to make sure he's dead? He's over there, I was about to bury him tomorrow according to Buddhist tradition… hahahaha… you know, I think I'm getting more humorous by the minute."

"Dead! Who did it? How did it happen?"

"Who did it? Don't tell me you've got amnesia, that won't get past the jury you know, hahahaha…"

"Perhaps I have forgotten something."

"Yeah, yeah, I've forgotten everything too please stop making me laugh I'm going to pee hahahaha…"

Sun Wukong leaped suddenly forward and snapped the pig snout shut.

"Make just one more sound."

Bajie's eyes widened, his mouth swelled, then he swallowed his laugh with a gulp.

One minute later…

"So that's what happened. Obviously, someone pretending to be me killed the egg-head. How dare they."

"I totally believe it was someone pretending to be you, so long as you don't kill me for witnessing it, ha - ahem."

"By killing the monk, he is clearly trying to stop me reaching the West. And how dare he transform into my shape!"

"Well, I'd rather he had transformed into me, too, but maybe my handsome features were too much for him to handle hehehe."

"Stop laughing! Only the monk can gain us entrance into the Western Paradise, isn't that what the Goddess said? Now great, he's dead, and the curses on us will never be lifted."

"That's alright, what's the difference between being a pig and an immortal anyway? Perhaps the pig is just a little bit happier? Hahahahaha…"

"Well I can't stand it! I don't feel free with this ring around my head."

"Freedom? Whoa did I hear that? Everybody look there's a monkey here and he's talking about freedom!"

"Piss off!" Wukong aimed a kick at the pig, which Bajie did a back flip and dodged.

"Did you really think you could touch me, monkey? Did you really think you were a hero out to save the world? Guanyin and the Emperor are playing with you like a pet monkey oh whoops I forgot you actually are a monkey hahahaha…"

"Pig!"

"Monkey!"

"Pork!"

"Monkey brains!"

"Pig intestines!"

"Monkey butt!"

….

As Zhu Bajie shouted, he was suddenly screaming at the sky:

"Why! What the hell is this all for…"

"No… …" he is suddenly inarticulate with sobs.

That night, a blue moon came out. The whole Milky Way full of stars shone silently on a sobbing pig.


	3. Three

Three.

…I am a ghost, sometimes crying and sometimes laughing, until, eventually, I do not know if I actually feel anything, or if I am merely acting. Many people are watching me, and they are applauding me, but I am very lonely. I live in my own imagination; I imagine a world both simple and complicated. In my world, there are only demons and immortals. There are no humans, and none of the frivolities of humanity, but there are impossible, fantastic things. Yet had I truly lived there, I would be lonely still, for I am human.

These thoughts belong to the monk Tang, or perhaps Sun Wukong, or Zhu Bajie, or Friar Sand, or the girl-demon who now sits on the tree branch. They are all human, and so they think like this, though they do not look human, and perhaps that is the source of their pain.  
The cause……

Swirling, pure white clouds fill the world, and yet they are not anywhere. They are like sunshine - all the light and colour of the world come from there, yet the sun itself is white.

She still likes to watch the sun as it rises and sets, when all four fire dragons are singing to the slow, low tune of the long horns atop the bell tower, pulling the golden carriage in a wide arc across the sky. At these times, maiden Violet would lift her silken sleeve and place a light veil over the golden crown of the sun god, to protect him from dust and sand. But what dust can be found in the heavens? Of course the sun god knew her plan was to have all the clouds at sunset be given a violet sheen. So every time, he good-naturedly accepted. When this secret was out, the sun god's carriage became constantly draped with sheer silk scarves of every colour, some even tied around the necks of the fire dragons. And so the clouds at sunset took on a myriad of different hues.

The sun god received quite a lot of scarves every day, and these he would hang on his twin pine trees; if you looked far enough east, and high above the clouds, you would see them, so tall and wide that they seemed to reach the sky, with silk scarves of all colours draped on their branches, fluttering in the wind.

After the carriage of the sun god had disappeared into the distance, the bell tower would chime three times again, and Tian Peng, the keeper of the Heavenly river, would open the great dam of the Milky Way, and from there, flowed in not water, but billions and billions of particles of silver dust. They are too light, and so floated all throughout the Heavenly temples, and the immortals would walk among the stars. At this time, Tian Peng would remain waiting by the mouth of the river, and everyone would know who he was waiting for. Soon a silver boat glided in from the edge of the sky. The Moon Goddess, in front of Tian Peng, was like a playful little girl, pulling him by the hand, sitting beside him on the boat, talking, as they drifted towards the west.

"Ayao, are you peeking at the them again? Jealous much?"

"No!"

"No? But your face is as red as the sky at sunset." laughed Heavenly maiden Ayu.

"I…"

"All right, I'll stop. The Heavenly Mother said that the Peach Banquet is soon to take place and that it is time for us to pick the peaches from her Garden."

"Is it time again? Feels like we just had one. Nine thousand years passes so quickly."

"Where are you going?" said Violet, "the Peach Garden?"

"Yes, Violet, come along!" the maidens chorused.

"That's all right, I want to stay a while longer."

"Oh, of course, you don't do anything else when you watch the sunset!"

The maidens left, chatting and giggling.

"Did you hear? There's a new guard at the Garden."

"Oh yes. It's um, wind - Windy."

"Don't be silly, Windy was discharged like three thousand years ago. The one after him was um, Wu.. Well, Wu something."

"I don't think that's it at all."

"Well, whoever he is, we'll probably be done without even meeting him - it's like that every time, isn't it?"

They had arrived at the Peach Garden.

"Hm. Are we here at the wrong season? None of the peaches are ripe yet!"

"They are hardly grown! Only a few small green ones on each tree!"

"Has the Heavenly Mother mistaken the time?"

"Don't say that, how could the Mother be wrong? Have you forgotten the time when she said that the Wintersweet should bloom in the summer, and she still bloomed in the winter instead?"

"Oh, don't talk about it, it scares me to think of it!"

Ayao circled through the woods, and finally saw a big, ripe peach, right where she could reach.

"I've found a big one!" she called, grinning, as she reached for it.

The nightmare of a thousand years begun there.

Ayao still clearly remembered the scene: a monkey appeared in place of the peach on the tree; he laid back on the branch, head propped on an elbow, and watched her smugly.

"But I don't taste good at all, little lady."

That was the first thing he said to her.

Now Ayao sat in the ever-dark Forest of a Thousand Creatures, on the very branch that Sun Wukong had sat on moments ago. When she closed her eyes, everything flashed before them.

"I don't taste good at all, little lady..."

"Old lady, you've got the wrong person…"

Ayao screwed her eyes tight; tears flowed down her face, which was as wrinkled as old, dried tree bark.

At the other end of the forest.

"Sun Wukong, do you really want to be an immortal that much?" asked Zhu Bajie.

"Yeah! I was born a lowly creature, always a mere monkey demon that everyone looks down on! I'll show them all! …What are you laughing at?"

"What's wrong with laughing?"

"Stop it, stop it! I've vomited everything up already when you were crying! I can't watch you laugh anymore, somebody save me from this…"

"You are scared of people laughing at you…"

"No! No, no, no! What do you mean? Who have I ever been afraid of? I've never been scared!"

"You're scared of Guanyin scared of the Emperor…"

"Shut up! I'm not scared…"

"You're scared of the immortal Erlang and even his dog!"

"I. Am. NOT!"

"You're scared of dying scared when people ignore you scared you're not human scared that people think you're scared…"

"Shut. Your. Mouth! I'm not scared not scared not scared AHHHH…"

Sun Wukong leaped into the air, and brought his staff down on a boulder.

 _Boom_ , a deafening explosion; when the dust cleared, a deep crater had appeared in the earth.

Sun Wukong stood at the crater's center, covered in dust, breathing heavily, still muttering:

"Not scared, not scared, not scared…"

"Just look at how freaked out you are…"

"Oh, shut the fuck up."

Suddenly, both of them stopped talking.

They had both heard something.

In the silence of the night, a faint howling could be heard, full of pain and misery.

"What was that? Sounds like some wild beast." said Sun Wukong.

"I think it sounds like sobbing." said Zhu Bajie.

"A wild beast crying perhaps. It's like a bear who just lost his dad!"

"Just because you don't have a dad doesn't mean you should wish it on everyone else, you know."

"If I don't beat you up, right now, then my name isn't Sun-"

They were almost on top of each other, when the pig said:

"Shh…"

The sound was very clear now, it was shouting a name, drawn out, over and over again.

"Sun… Wu… Kong… … Sun… Wu… Kong… … Nooo…"

"Is that a ghost sent to get me?" said Sun Wukong in alarm.

"Is that your voice trembling? Whoa, you look really pale, like you're about to die."

Sun Wukong stared all round, one hand firmly around the pig's neck.

"Ack, even if you're scared, you don't… hem… have to… hug me so tightly…"

"If I'm going to die, I'm taking you with me."

"It's probably Master's spirit come to haunt you."

"Spirit? …Got it!"

With a flick of Wukong's wrist, Zhu Bajie flew into the air.

"I'll make a trip to the Underworld, find the baldie's ghost, and we can get back on the road!"

"Hem, hem… hahaha…"

"You're doing it again!"

"Lives we spend to purge our sins, purge our sins for lives to spend."

"Are you taking up the baldie's habit of making up rhymes?"

"The master's body is already burnt up, there's about half of it left over there."

"Well, we'll just have to make do, maybe get a few extra parts from somewhere. You stay here and watch the luggage and the body, I'll be back in about fifteen years, tops."

With a leap, Sun Wukong had disappeared into the distance.

"But Friar Sand has already left… " Zhu Bajie muttered, "Does that mean I have to carry the luggage from now on?"

"Good timing." said the White Dragon. She only ever talks in front of Zhu Bajie, and only he knows her secret.

"I need to go home for a break too."

"Go on, go on, if the monkey can get the monk's ghost back, I'll change my name to Sun."

After the White Dragon left, Zhu Bajie walked, alone, into the woods, to where the strange noise emanated from.

"Ayao. How are you?" he spoke to the darkness.

A long pause. Then -

"Who are you? How do you know my old name?"

"I?" replied Zhu Bajie, "I am you. I am one who would rather bear the pain than forget the past."


	4. Four

Four

This was a place of endless darkness. In the dark, only faint, transparent shapes could be seen sinking slowly down from above, being sucked into a great pit below.

Sun Wukong tried to take a deep breath, and found that there was no air to breath in.

Here, there was no hunger, no cold, no pain, no feeling at all.

But Wukong could feel, because he was still alive. He felt something that wasn't the cold creep into him.

The ghosts floated all around like jellyfish, and in their soft, transparent bodies, strange, insect-like things were ricocheting around.

"What are those?"

"We are desires!" the insects cried in shrill, whiny voices, "Let us go! We don't want to be exterminated!"

Wukong shuddered as he realized that the reply came from things inside his own body.

He checked himself over, hurriedly. At least he wasn't transparent.

Upon entering the pit, his feet touched ground. In front of him, a gigantic monster with countless legs was dragging his horns through thousands of souls at a time, removing the bugs and throwing them into a sea of lava.

"Nooo... Nooo… Save me…" a cacophony of countless tiny voices screamed without pause.

Desires of all shapes and sizes fell like snowflakes.

A long horn extended in front of Wukong; on it, an eye blinked.

Wukong started and leaped aside.

A shrill voice: "Save me! Save me!"

It was a small, pink insect, caught on a horn, fluttering in panic.

What difference would it make, Sun Wukong thought．

But he still flew over, and lifted the bug from the horn.

"Thank you! Thank you! How can I repay you?"

"Don't worry about it. Besides, what can you do? You're tiny."

"I'm sometimes small, sometimes big, sometimes fragile, yet sometimes strong enough to defeat anything."

"Oh yeah? Who're you?"

"My name is… Someone's coming! Let me ride this one out."

In a blink, the bug had dived into Wukong's body.

"Oh heavens save me! Can it be?" someone shouted wildly.

Sun Wukong lifted his gaze, and saw a man - or rather a ghost - clad in an officer's clothes, fallen over in fright.

Wukong walked over: "What's up with you?"

"Holy smokes!" the ghost scrambled to stand up, "I'm scared! I'm so scared!"

"But you're a ghost. Do ghosts get scared?"

"Ghosts are empty, and fear all things solid and bright, even so much as a spark of sunlight. Not to mention you, the Great Sa - "

"I'm not the great anything, I'm Sun Wukong. And I'm looking for someone - well, his ghost."

"You…" the creature was still staring at Wukong warily, "Oh yes, you've forgotten… thank heavens, thank heavens…"

"What?"

The ghost did not reply, and instead lead Wukong for what seemed to be thousands of miles in the dark, deep underground.

They came to an sudden, sheer cliff. Beyond it was only endless nothingness.

He brought Wukong to the very edge: "On matters of life and death, nothing escapes the Earthly Buddha. You may go ask him."

"Where's he? Why can't I see him?"

"Do you know where this is?"  
  
"Looks like the end of the Earth."

"Exactly. Ahead, there is no longer any ground. Mortals who arrive here cannot travel one step further, and can only fall into bottomless void. Hence, this place is named the Empty Mountain."

"Cool."

"To see the Earthly Buddha, you must go through here."

"How?"

"Jump, of course. Whether or not you reach the bottom will depend on you."

"Ha! Think you can kid me around? Even if there is a bottom, suppose I fall non-stop for a few centuries - wouldn't I get bored to death on the way? Let me test it out first… _Dammit_ , there isn't so much as a pebble in this place!"

"All depends on you. A man who knows the Way, will reach the Other Side. This drop, to a man with the Knowledge, is a flight up, and the darkness, light."

"Oh, _wow_ , that sounds truly incredible… You first!" Without warning, Wukong kicked the ghost off the cliff.

"Ahhh! Noooo…" The ghost dropped like a stone.

Wukong leaned over. "Are you raising up? See any light?"

"Fucking monkey, you better…" The voice shrank and faded away.

"Ha! Jump off, my tail. Do I look stupid?"

Wukong turned around, to find that he was alone in the endless darkness.

"Is there no direction in this place?"

"Of course there is." said a voice in the dark.

"Who was that? And can everybody stop randomly speaking up like that?"

"There are two directions in this place: up, and down."

"Yeah? So you actually have to jump to find the Earthly Buddha?" Wukong stared all around, seeing nothing.

"Not exactly. Without understanding, a thousand miles is all for nothing; With it, the Western Paradise is at one's feet."

"Woah, so deep. About as useful as letting out gas."

"You want answers, but you do not have a receptive heart. How, then, can I teach you?"

"Teach me? Who the fuck do you think you are? Show yourself!"

"I am right before you."

"Where? Are you all black or something? Flash me a grin, will you?"

A sudden brightness appeared before Wukong's eyes. Before the cliff, two large regions of white had appeared, both many miles across, and within each of the white regions, was a great circular region of darkness. Within the darkness, a figure was visible. It was the reflection of Wukong himself.

Wukong looked the apparition up and down.

"Ohhh, a pair of eyes, I see! That all you've got?"

"Do you know who I am?"

"How should I know? Where's your face? What do you think you're staring at, goldfish?"

"You have no idea the size that I can grow to with my power! Hahaha… I, am the -"

"I don't care! What's that got to do with me?"

"I… Well, I'm telling you anyway: I, am - "

"Dontcaredontcaredontcare…"

"Listen, you - you monkey-"

"Oh, pissed are we? You still want to teach me?"  
  
"Shut up! I'm the King of the Underworld."

"…"

"Humph. Cat got your tongue, monkey? Don't you want to find your master? I can help you, you insolent creature!"

"…"

"To tell the truth, his ghost never even came to this place. Which means that he has either become an immortal and risen to the heavens, or he has too much he cannot let go in the mortal world, and his spirit still wanders there."

Without a word, Wukong turned to leave.

"Where are you going?"

"If he's not here, I'll look elsewhere."

"You're going, just like that?"

"Yeah. Thanks." Wukong said lightly, without pausing on his way out.

"What did you say?"

"Thanks, thanks! Are you deaf?"

 "Did you hear that? He said thanks! Sun Wukong, said thanks! Sun Wukong said thanks to me! Hahaha… oh, that feels _fucking_ good."

"Hahahaha…" Countless voices suddenly began laughing all around. Sun Wukong realized suddenly that there were actually thousands of ghosts surrounding him, invisible in the dark.

"Hahaha… is this what the great Sun Wukong has become?"

"Isn't he cute, now?"

"Look at him, all quiet - what're you looking at, huh?"

"Hahahaha…"

"Hahahaha……"

Sun Wukong was starting to realize that something was wrong. Why was he so calm?

He actually wanted to be angry, but he only felt utterly empty. He seemed to have nothing to fuel his anger with.

So he just walked, slowly, among the echoing laughter.

What are they laughing at? He thought.  
  
What should I do now?

Wukong walked away into the darkness.  
  
The King of the Underworld heaved a great sigh of relief. "Thank heavens, he's finally gone. All right, at ease, everyone!"

Suddenly, a flood of ghost-soldiers emerged from every corner of the Underworld, hundreds and thousands of them, like ants scurrying from a disturbed anthill. All of them were armed.

"Bravo, my King," chuckled one ghost, "Scared off the Great Sage Equal to Heaven himself!" It was the ghost that Wukong had pushed over the cliff.

"Well, Advisor, I must confess, I was pretty freaked out too. I mean, what if he'd actually gotten mad?" The King of the Underworld, having removed his illusions, now appears to be a short, portly fellow.

"Looks like Guanyin's idea really worked."

"Yeah, he's just a tame dog, now - all bark and no bite!"

"Hahahaha…"

"Hahahaha……ack."

They choked on their laughter, jaws dropping open.

They were both staring at the same point ahead.

The thousands of ghost-soldiers turned to stare as well.

In the dark, a figure was walking towards them.

He walked quite slowly, but every step seemed to shake the Underworld.

Sun Wukong!

"Hello there, little ghosts of the Underworld. We meet again." said Wukong, "Well? Weren't you all having a good time there, laughing? Well then, laugh. Go on."

Every ghost clapped a hand tightly over their own mouth.

"Who was it that laughed the loudest?"

Hundreds of thousands of fingers lifted and pointed at the King of the Underworld.

The King of the Underworld paled. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the Advisor pointing at him. He glared at the Advisor, who quickly shrank his hand back.

"You! Get over here, and get your behind ready for two hundred of the best." Wukong twitched his staff.

"Spare me Great Sage no need to take it so seriously Great Sage it was just my little joke!"

"Two hundred on the ass… or one on the head."

"…"

Wukong's face suddenly twisted: " _All of you, you were right to laugh!_ "

In a flash, before the King of the Underworld could move a muscle, Wukong had leapt forward, and seized him by the scruff of the neck.

"Off with you!" With a swing of Wukong's arm, the King of the Underworld was tossed high into the air like a large pillow, arcing over the heads of the ghost army, and ramming into the tip of the Empty Mountain.

"Charge! Everybody, charge!" the Advisor shouted.

Hundreds of thousands of ghosts rushed forward with shrill battle cries.

"Come, come, bring it on!" Wukong laughed wildly, and leapt into the crowd. At once, ghosts began flying into the air.


	5. Five

Five.

 

The White Dragon of the Eastern Sea sneaked quietly into the Dragon Palace. The Eastern Dragon King was nodding on his throne. No one else was around.

She stepped silently over, and wrapped her arms around him.

A single tear fell on the Dragon King's face.

The Dragon King opened his eyes.

"My child! Is it really you?"  He hugged the White Dragon to his chest, tears brimming his old eyes. "Have you finally decided to come home?"

"Father, he's dead. Sun Wukong killed him." the White Dragon sobbed, "I watched him die, and couldn't do anything."

"Child, why do you do this to yourself? You could have been married to a prince in the Heavens, but you choose to carry a mortal on an endless journey!"

"Father, you don't understand. You will never understand."

"No matter what, Father will not let you leave the Palace this time."

"You can't stop me. I believe he is still somewhere in the world, and I will find him. Father, I may have longer journeys yet in the future - please look after yourself!"

"My silly child! My heart is with you. Every hardship you endure is a knife in my chest!"

"I'm sorry, Father. But I believe in him, believe in the dream he believes. Nothing can stop him in achieving that dream."

"Him! Him! He is all you talk about! If you are determined to leave, why come back at all?"

"Father, I need to borrow your Pearl. With its magic, I can protect his body, until I find his soul.

The Dragon King sighed. "Have I ever been able to refuse you anything, child? But Heaven has issued orders, no one is to help those four."

"Father, who are they, and what have they done to offend Heaven?"

"I do not know who the monk Tang may be, that he can inspire you so. But Sun Wukong, Zhu Bajie, Sha Wujing - they are all… do not make me say it!"

"All right. I won't ask."

"Child, if Heaven should know that you are helping them, your entire family in the sea will not escape the penalty of death!"

"I understand, Father. I will be careful."

A fish swam in to report. "Sire! A monkey requests a meeting. He said his name is Sun."

"Go child!" The Dragon King said hurriedly, "take the Pearl, and above all, be careful!"

"Goodbye, Father!" the White Dragon bowed out with tears in her eyes.

Sun Wukong burst into the room out of impatience, and found himself facing a girl, clad all in white, on her way out. At the moment she passed, her gaze flickered up at him briefly, then she lowered her head and walked past him hurriedly.

Have I seen her somewhere before? Wukong wondered.

The entire dragon palace was empty but for the Dragon King and Sun Wukong. All the other fish had been sent away - this was a meeting Heaven must not find out about.

"What brings the Great Sage here?" asked the old King.

"Nothing much. Just need to borrow that Incorruptible Pearl of yours."

"W-What?"

"What do you mean, 'what'? Don't you trust me? I always return what I borrow."

"I am well aware of how principled the Great Sage is. And is the Gold-tipped Staff still working well for you?"

"How did you know I have it? It seems like I was born with it in my ear!"

"You truly do not remember the past?" the Dragon King chuckled bitterly, "A travesty! That such greatness can be so reduced."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"Nothing… How did the monk Tang die?"

"You heard about that? Some fucker transformed into my shape and killed the egg-head, no doubt in an attempt to stop me from reaching the West. He's still in this world somewhere, of course. The baldie, I mean. I have to find him now, and it's going to take who knows how long!"

"Unfortunate creature!"

"No need to pity me, I'm simply destined for running errands. Now how about that Pearl?"

"It… well… It's lost."

"Lost? You can just _say_ if you don't want to lend it to me, you know. What do you expect me to do? Eat you?"

"You just might." the Dragon King murmured.

"Whatever, cheapskate. Oh well, let His Hairlessness rot, then. The pig's body is still good, Tang can share it, I suppose. I'm off."

The Dragon King watched Sun Wukong's faint sillouette disappear rapidly into the distance, mouth slightly agape.

"He left, just like that?"

He shook his head, turned, and yelled in shock.

Sun Wukong stood behind him.

"You slimy old worm, you gave the Pearl to your daughter! I'll finish her off first!" Sun Wukong snarled.

"No, Great Sage!" the Dragon King clutched Wukong's sleeve desperately, "She's gone back to help your Master! Do anything you like to this old Dragon, but do not hurt my daughter! She, too, has only good intentions for the traveling monk!"

"Good intentions? The road to hell is paved with them! I hate good intentions! How many have died, because of _good intentions_? I'd sooner wake her to her folly with a good knock on the head!"

"No, Great Sage! I'm begging you!"

The Dragon King was kneeling on the ground, still refusing to loosen his grip on Wukong's sleeve.

"Let go!"

"Promise me you will spare my daughter!"

"Ha! When have I spared anyone?"

With a swing of his arm, he threw the Dragon King back, and drew out the Gold-tipped Staff.

"Yours, huh? Old Sun has not forgotten. Today I'll end you with it, and I shall owe you no more!"

Bam!

A dark red mist began to spread, slowly, in the blue sea water.

***

_The cause._

Five hundred years ago.

Endlessly, the blue-green sea stretched on.

On stretched the green-blue sea, endlessly.

"Is there anything else here at all, besides sea water?" The Dragon Princess pouted.

"I want to take a look outside." And anything the Princess wanted, the Princess got.

So she turned into a goldfish, and left the Dragon Palace!

Of course she didn't tell her Father. She was grown up. If she wanted to sneak out of the Palace, then she would.

She swam and swam, for three nights and days. And still, all around her was the endless blueness.

 "Am I _there_ yet? Hey, you there - how far are we from the shore?" She had stopped a fish swimming alongside her.

 "You dare talk to _me_ like this!? I'm a shark!" said the other fish.

"I always talk like this. What are you going to do, bite me? Ha! You wouldn't dare!"

"Why not?"

"Because I'm _me_ , of course."

She swam away, laughing, leaving the shark looking befuddled. "Why can't I bite her? She's just a carp!"

On she swam, for three days more.

"This is _such_ a bore. But I'm probably very near the shore now."

"The shore! Ha, we are miles away! At your speed, you'll die of old age before you get there!" A sword fish zipped past her, and laughed.

"Oh, you're horrible! Take that, and that, and that!" she pounded him with her small fins bunched like fists.

"Humph. I was only telling the truth. What a terrible temper. Probably will never get a husband." the sword fish swam away with a flick of its tail.

"I won't have it! I shall transform, right now!"

The water around her began to vibrate. Waves, aglow with magic, rippled from her position and swept through the ocean. At the very crescendo of the rippling waves, a spherical vacuum formed around her, burning with light that lit up the very depths of the sea!

"Look out! The sun fell into the sea!" a nearby school of fish shouted in unison.

A column of water rose high, high into the air. Then, suddenly, it collapsed into countless dew drops of water, and for a moment, suspended between the sky and the glassy sea below was a galaxy of shimmering golden stars!

Faint at first in the brilliance, but growing ever clearer, was the silhouette of the White Dragon's true form.

She was the colour of pure white jade and the shape of gently rolling clouds.

"Oooh…" said the fish.  "Aaah…"

"This is the best moment of my life!" the seaweed and coral exclaimed happily.

"Ah! I'm scared of heights!" yelled the fish that were brought into the air by the churning water.

With a flick of her tail, the White Dragon waved the water droplets to them, encasing each one in a shimmering liquid bubble.

"Wow! We're flying!" promptly cried the previously panicking fish.

"I want to fly too!" shouted an excited young fish in the sea.

"Don't be silly. Fish can't fly." snapped his harried-looking mother.

The White Dragon grinned. She really was very lucky to be a dragon, to be free to roam in the sky or the depths of the sea as she liked. Funny how she never realized that, until she saw these common fish. That the ability to cross boundaries, was quite nice.

In mere minutes, she could see land through the clouds beneath her.

Of course she couldn't just fly down like this.

She morphed back into a fish, and slipped into the ocean near the shore.

And chose a direction in which to swim.

Do we always arrive at the same place, whatever path we choose?


	6. Six

Six.

The White Dragon saw the world above the water - a strange, wonderful world, with creatures called “humans”, walking about along the shore. What were they doing? They were wearing different clothes, and a range of different expressions, from the happy to the woeful. She longed to know what they were thinking.

She suddenly had a strong desire to get to know a human. To understand his heart.

So she swam along the bank of the river, examining every human along the shore.

It was then that she saw him.

The very moment she laid eyes on him, she was captivated.

Why? She wasn’t sure. Was it his handsome features? His exceptional bald head? Ah yes, it was his eyes.

He was sight-seeing on the shore of the river, and he looked at everything around him with something in his eyes that was different from everyone else.

That gaze, was like… like the sun - warm and happy. Whether he was looking at a blade of grass, or willows growing across the river, or the busy people on the street, his eyes were always admiring, serenading...

“Hey, monk! What are you staring at a girl for? Creep!” a woman snapped.

Monk? He was called “monk”? Why do they rebuke him? Was it not nice to have such gentle eyes looking at you? Surely that was nothing to be angry about.

But the monk was not angry. He replied with a smile: “I look not at you, but at flowers. Flowers reflect in the water, making colours where there’s none."

“Crazy monk!” everyone sneered.

The White Dragon didn't understand humans. On the shore, the butcher was glaring at a customer trying to select a boar head; the boar head on the rack was glaring at the butcher. In the street, a scholar walked with his head bowed, sighing miserably; a woman in an upstairs window was batting her eyes, unnoticed by the scholar. In a restaurant, a customer and the waiter were arguing over a fly in a bowl; outside, two great warriors were getting into a sword fight over an argument about who had walked into whom.

If they all looked at the world the way the monk did, they would surely find all of this very amusing.

The White Dragon was suddenly very eager to let the monk take a look at her. Would his eyes light up with delight? After all, her current form was that of a very rare, pure gold carp. The monk would surely be impressed.

She found herself swimming towards the shore…

Suddenly, something tightened around her. Then, with a splash, she had been lifted out of the water!

"Everyone! Look what I caught! A golden carp! A pure gold carp!" a fisherman shouted.

The White Dragon was embarrassed and furious. She had been caught by mere mortal! And displayed for the masses to see! She wanted to transform, but her powers are diminished outside of the water.

Everyone was staring at her. The White Dragon tried to close her eyes in embarrassment, but found that fish have no eyelids.

In her panic, she looked towards the monk.

How infuriating! Everyone was looking this way, but not him. He was still smiling vaguely at the river water.

“I’ll buy it from you for ten coppers!" someone in the crowd shouted.

“This is a rare delicacy! You might not see one again all your life!” the fisherman prompted encouragingly.

“Eleven coppers!” someone else offered.

“Twelve coppers!"

The White Dragon struggled furiously in the net, almost succumbing to chewing at the cords. Fools! Humans are all ignorant fools! Do they have no respect for the beautiful and precious things in the world?

It was then, that a voice said: “Amitabha. Sir, we must not eat that fish..."

“Eh? What are you talking about, monk?” demanded the fisherman.

It was him! The White Dragon stopped struggling.

The monk was still smiling. “That’s no carp, sir -"

Does he recognize me for what I am? The White Dragon held her breath.

“ - It’s a shell-less tortoise!” finished the monk.

The White Dragon had almost keeled over, for a moment there.

“What did you say? A shell-less…? Haha, idiot!” the fisherman roared with laughter.

The whole crowd burst into laughter, too.

“Really! On my monk’s honour, it has four legs."

“Four legs? Ahahaha! Where? I don’t see them! Hahaha…”

“I’ve seen this type of fish before, they really have four little legs. It’s just that, normally, they keep them tucked in. Here, allow me to show you... riiight there…"

Starting to look uncertain, the fisherman held out the carp for the monk.

The monk snatched the carp, stuffed it in his robe, and bolted.

"Wha-?" The fisherman's eyes widened in realization, "The monk's stealing the fish! Someone get him! The monk's stealing the fish!"

With astonishing speed, the monk sprinted all the way to the city gates, and out.

Haha, and that, my friends, is the famous story of the young Tripitaka compassionately saving the golden carp. Let us continue.

The White Dragon, tucked in the monk's arms, could see nothing, and could only hear the monk panting as he ran, and smell the sweaty scent of his young man's body. She felt strange, like she was growing tipsy with wine.

The monk had finally stopped. With a splash, the White Dragon was in water again. She swam about in a quick turn, and discovered that she was in a large porcelain urn.

The monk slumped beside the tank, panting.

The monk was a kind man, the White Dragon thought, wagging her fish tail.

Now the monk had stood up again, leaning over the tank and gazing at her. He was muttering something.

"... boiled or fried?"

The White Dragon almost fell to the bottom of the tank - he was going to cook her too?!

"Got you!" the monk laughed, and reached down and tickled her.

I knew you wouldn't, the White Dragon thought. Where the monk's hand touched her, she felt a strange shiver along her fish's body, and quickly ducked away.

Did the monk know she could understand him, she wondered.

No, he didn't. He was speaking to the flowers planted outside the cottage now.

"Have you all been good while I was gone? Have the ants bothered you? I had a talk with them yesterday, so they should be fine. No need to spit at them if you see them again."

What a funny monk, the White Dragon thought. He looked like he was perhaps eighteen or nineteen, but sometimes, he still acted like a child.

"Tang! Master Tian Yang from the People's Guild Temple of Hong Province is here to debate with Master Fa Ming in the great hall - come and see!"

"Coming!" 

Before the monk Tang left, he turned and told her: "Stay here by yourself for a bit. I'll take you home when I'm back. Don't let Brother Shi and his cat see you!"

Got it. The White Dragon thought. I'll be right behind you, anyway.

Tang ran out, leaving the room empty.

A streak of golden light flew from the water tank, and the water splashed to the floor. 

The White Dragon stood in the room. There was not enough water for her to change into a dragon, so she had taken the form of a human.

She was now an impossibly beautiful young woman, clad all in white.

Actually, the White Dragon frequently took this form back in the Palace; all dragons are born with a natural human form.

She carefully peeked out from the hut. She was in a small cottage within a spacious temple built in the mountains. From a great hall in the distance, she could hear the hum of collective human voices. Nearby, all was quiet. It seemed everybody was at the debate.

She grinned.

It was time to observe the life of Tang the Human!

She transformed into a pure white nightingale, and flew to the great hall, landing in one of the windows. Here in the mountains, the most common bird was the sparrow - but that was much too mundane for her.

A great array of monks sat on the floor of the hall. At the very centre, two elderly monks stood. One held a walking stick and a sack, and seemed to be a visiting nomad. The other, naturally, was the resident Abbot of the temple.

"Master Fa Ming, I have long heard of the thriving Buddhist wisdom of Golden Peak Temple, and arrived here today to beg for your teachings." said the old monk with the walking stick.

"Master Tian Yang is too kind."

"Why is that?" Tian Yang barked suddenly, "Do you not dare accept praise?"

Master Fa Ming looked startled for a moment, before he realized that the debate had begun. He smiled and calmly replied: "I dare accept but dare not relinquish."

"Release it!"

"My hands are empty. What is there to release?"

"Then what are you holding?"

"The heart knows the truth."

The two shot questions and answers at each other like arrows, and all around them the monks whispered fervent discussions.

"Do you understand any of it?" 

"Not a word!" 

"This is quite beyond my depth!" 

"Such incredible wisdom!"

The White Dragon searched the crowd for Tang, only to find him standing among his peers, and looking right back at her.

The White Dragon's heart skipped a beat, and felt herself blush, before realizing she was a bird, and that no one could see a blush under her feathers.

Tang merely smiled at her.

Does he recognize me? The White Dragon wondered. Impossible! He was only a mortal, he couldn't possibly have any power to see through her magic.

The two monks had reached a critical point in their debate, and were both concentrating so hard that steam had begun to rise from the top of their heads.

"What is Zen?" asked Tian Yang.

"It is." replied Fa Ming.

"What is the True Dharma Eye?"

"It isn't."

"What is Empty?"

"A question."

"Is it?"

"Isn't it?"

"Is it??"

"Ah ..."

Tian Yang roared with laughter. "Is that all you've got?"

"I... Ah..." Fa Ming had turned a deep red, and all the monks around them started speaking at once.

"The Golden Peak Temple seems to have an undeserved reputation. Despite all my travels, I have not met a true Master! Pity! Pity... ” laughed Tian Yang above the cacophony of the crowd.

"Hahaha..."

A single voice in the crowd was laughing too. 

Everyone turned around. It was Tang.

Tian Yang stared at Tang. 

"Does the young Master find this old monk funny?"

"Hm?" said Tang, "Oh, no, I was looking at a couple of rabbits fighting, just up that tree outside in the yard. It was quite funny, so I laughed."

"Nonsense. There are no rabbits in trees."

"Then what's in the trees?" asked Tang.

Tian Yang paused, stumped. He looked Tang up and down, examining him anew. 

"You hide great talents behind your young age, Master Tang!"

"What?" cried one of the monks in the crowd, "But he is the laziest of us all! He never even listens in lectures."

"Be silent!" Fa Ming quieted the other monk, and said to Tang, "Tang, if you have something to say, you may say it."

"It's really nothing." Tang smiled. "I really did see some rabbits just now. I also saw a white nightingale that can blush."

Huh? The White Dragon almost fell off the window ledge.

"The young Master is being reticent! Then I shall speak first." said Tian Yang.

"Please."

"What is Buddha?"

Tang looked up, and down, and outside the door...

"Have you lost something? Quick! Think of a reply!" cried Fa Ming.

"He has already replied." chuckled Tian Yang, "He means to say, 'Buddha is in all things'. Very impressive, young Master."

Tang smiled.

"I'll ask you another question, the one that Fa Ming could not answer. What is Empty?"

"Broken." said Tang, without thinking.

"Is it?"

"Nope."

"If it isn't, then why did you answer?" Fa Ming snapped, "Little whelp!"

"If it isn't, then why did you ask?" Tang shot back, "Old fart!"

The two glared at each other. Everyone else watched, frozen in shock.

After a long silence, Fa Ming gave a great sigh. 

"You are quite right, young Master. I have lost."

Tang was immediately the talk of the temple.

After Tian Yang left, all crowded closer to Tang, asking him for explanations.

"That last attack of Tian Yang came very quickly and viciously! How did you manage to parry it? What is the true meaning behind the phrase, 'old fart'?"

Tang rubbed his bald head, grinning. 

"It wasn't much. He said my answer was wrong, and that I was a little kid who should be beat up. I said, so what if I get it wrong? If you beat me up, I can beat you up back, old man. And since he saw I was young, he realized he probably can't win in a fight. So he surrendered."

A seizable section of the crowd had fallen over.

"Tang, you are clearly immensely talented. From now on, I would like you to live and study directly with me. I will teach you all that I know." said Fa Ming.

Tang rubbed his head and said: "Actually, I think it's pretty nice in the cottage where I live. I can grow flowers and look at the sky. I can't memorize all those scriptures."

"If you do not put in the effort to study, how will you one day become worthy of my position and legacy?" smiled Fa Ming.

All the monks nearby looked at Tang with envy - the Abbot was clearly indicating that Tang would be his chosen successor.

But Tang said: "What I want to learn, you cannot teach me."

The crowd of monks collectively drew a breath in shock. Fa Ming, too, stumbled back, looking shaken.

"What is it that you wish to learn?" asked Fa Ming with forced calm.

Tang tilted back his head, looking up at the clouds changing shape in the sky, and spoke.

"I want this sky to never again cover my eyes; this earth, never again bury my heart. I want every living creature to know my will, and all the gods, to scatter like smoke."

Those words were like a flash of lightning across a cloudless sky.

In the Western Paradise, Gautama Buddha had been meditating when he suddenly opened his eyes with a gasped, "No!"

The Goddess of Mercy, Bodhisattva Guan Yin stepped forward.

"What is it, Master?"

Said the Lord Buddha:

"It's him. He's back."

**Author's Note:**

> Criticism and suggestions very welcome!


End file.
